Fact of the day

Information is the most powerful weapon.

Monday

Fact N°
2174

By licking a postage stamp, you will pick up a nutritional content of around six calories.

According to the British Royal Mail, the nutritional content of a single adhesive stamp is 5.9 calories -- although presumably this figure is the caloric content of all the lickable adhesive on the entire surface of the stamp, and therefore a person's actual caloric consumption would be lower (which may explain the far lower U.S. Postal Service estimate of one-tenth of a calorie). The caloric content comes from the sugars present in the wood-based adhesive gum on these stamps, although they have become far less prevalent with the advent of self-adhesive stamps.

Tuesday

Fact N°
2175

Men are more likely to forgive a partner who has a lesbian affair than a heterosexual one.

According to a University of Texas study, men are more than twice as likely to forgive a partner who's had a homosexual affair (50% said they would forgive a homosexual affair, as opposed to 22% who said they'd forgive a heterosexual affair). Women, conversely, showed the opposite pattern; 28% said they'd stick with a boyfriend after he'd had a heterosexual affair, while 21% would forgive a homosexual affair.

Wednesday

Fact N°
2177

Pedestrians are three times more likely to be killed in traffic accidents after daylight-saving begins.

The sudden extra hour when clocks are changed for daylight-saving time is to blame for an increase of pedestrians hit by cars. In November -- when daylight-saving ends -- pedestrians walking near traffic after 6 p.m. are much more likely to be struck by a car than at the same time of day in October, the month before the time change -- and the risk returns to normal the following month. Furthermore, a pedestrian's risk of being struck by a car at 6 p.m. in November is 11 times higher than in April, when daylight-saving time starts. Morning traffic, according to researchers, seems unaffected; only evening rush hour becomes deadlier.

Thursday

Fact N°
2178

Doritos once paid a research facility to broadcast an ad into space.

Over a six-hour period in 2008, a Doritos advertisement was broadcast into space by the EISCAT Scientific Association, an international research organization based in Scandinavia. The high-powered radars directed the ad toward a star within a habitable zone that could theoretically support life in the distant Ursa Major constellation. The director of EISCAT conceded that since the ad was being sent as a binary MPEG file, it was rather unlikely to be decoded by extraterrestrial life, but he did defend the benefit to the institution -- pointing out that funding, even from commercial sources, still gets research done.

Friday

Fact N°
2179

Doctors have successfully cured a man with HIV for the first time in history.

In 2007, an HIV-positive man named Timothy Ray Brown was diagnosed with a form of leukemia and underwent aggressive treatment at a Berlin hospital. The treatment included total body irradiation and a risky stem-cell transplant. The transplant came from a donor who happened to have a specific genetic mutation (CCR5 delta 32) that made him highly resistant to HIV. After allowing Brown's immune system to recover and submitting him to extensive testing, doctors have officially declared him cured of HIV.

Saturday

Fact N°
2180

Spending time with other couples makes your relationships more fulfilling.

A Wayne State University study examined 60 dating couples and found that having meaningful interactions with other couples not only increases the likelihood of becoming friends with that couple -- it also increases the likelihood that you'll feel closer to your significant other. Couples in the study paired off and were split into two groups. One of these was asked to tackle thought-provoking questions, while the other was asked to engage in simple small talk. Subjects in the former group felt they'd learned more about one another, and a third of those couples contacted the others they'd met after the study concluded. None of the small-talk couples did the same.

Sunday

Fact N°
2181

The area around the Bahamas is home to numerous aquatic "black holes."

Scientists believe that these phenomena, which appear as large, dark masses like inland lakes, may illustrate characteristics of the earth's prehistoric oceans. The largest and most well-known, the Black Hole of South Andros, is about 50 meters deep and 300 meters across, and has a false bottom about halfway down. The hole's dark appearance is actually due to a layer of hot, toxic bacterial sludge, beneath which the water receives no light or oxygen. The Black Hole of South Andros was discovered less than 15 years ago by aircraft flying overhead.